#ReadSexPos Digest

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We at The Sex-Positive Blog don’t just produce sex-positive content — we consume it. Voraciously.

It would be a disservice to you, the readers, and to all the other authors and publications doing excellent work in the field of sex education and advocacy to keep those articles we read to ourselves.

With that in mind, here is the first-ever #ReadSexPos Digest*, with some of the best pieces in Sex & Sexuality we’ve read over the last month. If you come across an impactful, terrific piece that belongs in the next digest(s), use the hashtag #ReadSexPos on Twitter, Instagram, Google+ (we’re actually on there), etc.

Technically, it’s not a digest, because we’re posting links to the articles, not abridged versions or sections from them (which would be plagiarism), but ‘Recommended Reading’ sounds like homework, so I’m calling this a digest. — Editor-in-chief

Author Andrea Barrica is the founder of O.school, a remarkable, free, online sex-education platform, which hosts livestreams from educators — known as Pleasure Pros — covering a diverse range of Sex/Sexuality topics.

Barrica draws on some experiences users had, opening up and addressing their own traumas for the first time in O.school livestreams, and shares some resources from the site and discusses a ‘real-time #MeToo movement,’ wherein victims feel free to tell their stories immediately.

It’s a terrific article from a terrific Founder/CEO (several times over) and a terrific platform/resource. We unreservedly endorse and celebrate Barrica and all the O.school Pleasure Pros doing amazing, life-changing work at a time when it is sorely needed. Follow Andrea here on Medium, and check out O.School, too!

Writer Antonia Crane consistently produces some of the most interesting content on sex work and sex workers you’ll find on Medium. This article is gated for members, but it’s well worth one of your three monthly freebies if you’re not a member. And we recommend giving Antonia a follow!

This is not a blanket endorsement of author Miles Klee, but his article on Brendan Fraser’s #MeToo story’s fallout, and a companion piece Why Can’t the Media Call a Woman Raping a Man What It Is?, raise some interesting questions about the way the media and the general population talk about and conceive of concepts like ‘rape,’ ‘sexual assault,’ and ‘sexual intercourse.’ The following excerpt especially resonated with us:

There are many reasons why victims of harassment or physical abuse don’t always come forward right away, depending on factors too numerous to mention. Women will of course be pilloried and threatened by corrupt institutions and misogynist trolls for daring to accuse a man, but these antagonists start from the assumption that she’s making it up or actually to blame. With a man, you can acknowledge the incident as reported — we have no problem trusting a man’s version of reality — while still brushing it off as a joke.

I’ll reiterate, you may or may not enjoy Miles Klee’s entire oeuvre, but credit where credit is due — we certainly enjoyed reading his #MeToo coverage.

Whatever you might think about OkCupid as an app (several of us happen to love it), their content team is top-notch and their early commitment to data analysis and social commentary has paid off in the form of the OkCupid Blog, a fascinating look at romantic and psychosexual dynamics in modern dating.

It’s seriously awesome content, and we highly recommend it. This article, for instance, tackles the #RightToLove badge (which users can ‘earn’ by having answered ‘Yes’ to ‘Do you support the ACLU?’ on their profile’s questions). Evidently, there are all kinds of things correlated with having/not having the badge, like how likely someone is to support a border wall, own guns, be a feminist, have earned a degree and so forth. Well worth the read.

If you’re not in the mood for a 30-min read, bookmark this one for a time when you can curl up with some coffee or tea and dig in. The title was compelling, and every graf only gets more so. Author Patrick Gothman’s piece in the LGBTQ publication Reaching Out: Stories of Faith Lost and Found is lyrical, moving and beautiful, though plenty gut-wrenching. You’ll be better for having read it.

Author Juliette van der Molen describes her writing as ‘unladylike,’ which is reason enough to follow her, but this piece — about growing up queer in the Midwest in the 1980s and what coming out means for an introvert — is especially poignant and worth a look.

Every day their apologies, denials, and alternative facts were drowned in a torrent of new outcries against more powerful men. The flood has taken liberals and conservatives, men of faith and men of none, those who advocate “family values” and those who have tirelessly waved the flag of feminism.

😳

Michigan-native, Texas-transplant Joel Looper crushed it with this piece on consent. We’re eager to see more of his work going forward.

If you have a suggestion for the next digest, tag a link to the article with #ReadSexPos on Twitter or other social media platforms (we’re on all of them except Snapchat — no one on our staff is young or cool enough to be into Snapping). We’ll be watching for those! The next digest should be out in ~2 weeks.